Turning around local economies: Managerial strategies and community assets

Nontraditional “invisible” sources of growth are identified through a case study of a diversified industrial region in Massachusetts. Firm-specific managerial strategies are found to be an important element in the determination of economic growth. Customized and hybrid firms characterize major departures from the product-cycle model in which product specialization and service specialization attached to traditional products allow them to avoid productcycle maturity. The interaction of these business strategies with invisible community factors such as labor force quality and the labor-management environment significantly influences local economic growth. These findings indicate the importance of targeting development efforts at the firm as opposed to the industry level and the need to better utilize local invisible factors as a basis for boosting local economic growth.